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Just pulled the old 8-inch cutterhead out of the river after 3 days stuck on a log pile. | Dredge Operators - Free To Speak

oliver_nguyen15•7mo ago

Just pulled the old 8-inch cutterhead out of the river after 3 days stuck on a log pile.

We were clearing a channel up near Red Wing and hit a whole mess of sunken timber that wrapped the drive shaft solid. Got a diver down there with a torch and some big chains, and the whole crew worked through the night to free it up. Anyone ever have to cut through a whole tree underwater like that?

4 comments

4 Comments

aaron_mitchell7mo ago

Clearing a channel and hitting sunken timber is a real nightmare. We had a smaller cutterhead jammed on a cedar root ball a few years back. The diver with a torch is the right call, but we found using a pump to blow silt away first let him see what he was cutting. Trying to cut blind just burns through oxygen and time. Getting the whole crew on it through the night is what saves these jobs, no doubt about it.

the_hayden7mo ago

Yeah, the silt pump is a game changer for visibility down there. We learned that the hard way too, burning through air tanks on guesswork. Once you can actually see the root structure, the diver can place cuts where they'll actually break the jam loose instead of just hacking at it. That prep work with the pump feels like a delay, but it always shaves hours off the total job time. Letting the crew work in shifts through the night is the only way to beat the tide coming back in.

emeryj665mo ago

Read a piece in one of the diving trade magazines a while back about this exact problem. They stressed that a good silt pump setup pays for itself in saved time and air on the first big job. @aaron_mitchell is spot on about the difference it makes for the guy holding the torch.

drewr157mo ago

Man, "worked through the night" really says it all. That's the grind right there. I feel for you, getting wrapped up on a whole log pile is brutal. @aaron_mitchell is totally right about the silt being a huge problem, it turns a tough job into a blind guessing game. We had a suction line get fouled on what felt like a whole sunken dock, and the diver just had to feel his way around in the dark murk. Took forever. Getting that thing free after three days must have felt like a real win for the whole crew.